In the quest to grow the perfect indoor plant, energy-efficient, powerful, and automated equipment can help you achieve optimal climate control. However, even a complete setup of automated systems has room for innovation. That’s where integrated environmental control systems (ECS) come in.
Integrating every piece of equipment in your grow room such as grow lights, irrigation systems, CO2 enrichment systems, and temperature/humidity controllers can create a seamless and cohesive environment that is easy to manage.
If you want to optimize your grow room to perfection, an integrated climate control system can monitor every single aspect of your garden and produce a huge harvest. In the end, you’ll save yourself time and money investing in an environmental control system.
What Is A Grow Room Controller?
A grow room controller allows you to automate your cultivation tasks and remove the risk of human error. Because of this, many of the common grow room issues can be a thing of the past.
Ultimately, a grow room controller allows you to control the health of the plant and critical variables including the lighting, heating, CO2, nutrients, moisture, all remotely after you’ve pre-programmed them onto your controller.
While you don’t need a grow room controller to produce a healthy plant, it can help improve your chances of growing connoisseur-grade cannabis. They are essentially a guarantee to grow great cannabis.
Benefits of environmental controllers include:
- Data logging capabilities
- Precise climate control
- Energy savings
- Reduced waste
Grow Room Controller Types
In the grow room, there are many different variables and lots of equipment needed to maintain and care for plants. As a result, there are many types of grow room controllers to control every aspect of the environment inside the growing space.
Here are a few common single purpose controllers:
- CO2 controller: A CO2 controller allows you to program specific carbon dioxide set points. You can provide the right level of CO2 enrichment at the temperatures that you program.
- Humidity controller: Humidity controls allow you to set your ideal humidity set points for any time of day to control your humidity devices such as the humidifier, dehumidifier, and intake/exhaust fans. They can help you achieve your ideal moisture content.
- Irrigation controller: Program your irrigation controller to water your plants at predetermined times. You can program the time and how much water is given to your plants.
- Light controller: Lighting controllers allow you to set your lighting schedule. Set how long you want your lights to run depending on the stage of plant growth such as vegetative stage or flowering stage.
- Nutrient controller: Program the controller to give your plants just the right amount of dose of essential nutrients. Create custom nutrient blends to meet the needs of different stages of growth.
- pH controller: These devices can help you measure, adjust, and monitor pH levels in your soil and water.
- Temperature Controller: A digital temperature controller allows you to program your cooling and heating systems. Temperature controllers allow you to decide when the devices should turn on and off. The day or night temperature can easily be controlled with this temperature control device.
- Ventilation controller: Ventilation controllers can help keep an optimal temperature in your grow room. They can work alongside fans and air conditioners to keep a perfect ambient temperature.
All-In-One Grow Room Controller
An all-in-one environmental controller can be a complete solution to your entire grow space instead of relying on individual components or a single controller to handle one problem. An electronic 3-in-1 sensor measures external conditions and can detect temperature, humidity, and light. Separate sensors can measure other grow room variables.
All-in-one/integrated environmental controllers like the Trolmaster Hydro-X Environment Control System can provide complete control and help growers control all aspects of their climate including CO2 levels, lighting, temperature levels, humidity levels, and more. Best of all, they come in a central unit and can have a mobile-friendly version that enables remote monitoring.
With an app, you can monitor and control the environment anytime and anywhere. You can also read the trend data by graph on your smartphone and receive alert messages if the environment goes out of your set points. A multi-purpose grow room controller can come with a storage card to log data when there is no Wi-Fi connection.
Multi-function grow room controllers can be mounted to a wall or surface in an easily accessible space away from grow room hazards.
Factors to Consider When Looking for a Complete Digital Environmental Controller
The climate control market is growing fast, especially controllers that are dedicated to cannabis grow rooms. We recommend the Trolmaster control systems, but there are many others out there that can provide effective environmental control.
Consider these factors when trying to choose between climate controllers;
- Durability: Is your controller made from durable materials? Does it come with a warranty? What do the customer reviews say?
- Ease-of-use: How easy is it to use it? If you’re a relatively new or a seasoned grower, a user-friendly controller is your best bet. Some options are plug-and-play while others require more configuration and installation time.
- Alarm: How does your controller alert you when there are spikes or dips in the temperature, CO2, humidity, or light? Do you get mobile, desktop, and email alerts when the ideal conditions are not met?
- Warranty: A warranty against defect is a non-negotiable. Ideally, the longer the warranty the better the product. For climate controllers, at least one-year warranty is the industry standard.
- Display: Most controllers have a high-quality LCD digital display. An easy-to-read display allows you to check the readings of all your equipment and override the controllers, or alter the programming. Remote access allows you to preprogram devices on the spot from anywhere.
- Data storage: Do you need a monitor that logs data so you can assess your energy usage and optimize your grow room operations? Data storage can help you do this.
Ultimately, any climate controller can help improve the production of cannabis plants, although some are better than others. Keep in mind, different cultivars have different requirements, so the right climate controller may be different for each grower.
As long as it meets most of your requirements, a multi-purpose controller should help you control your grow room and produce a better overall product.
Environmental Controllers Done Right
As an indoor grower, it’s not enough to just buy one, set it, and forget it. It needs regular equipment checks to ensure that the equipment is actually turning on and off when the controller tells it to. Equipment malfunctions can render the controller useless. It is important to provide your workers with training to train them on troubleshooting and regular maintenance.
In addition, you want to perform preventive maintenance on your ECS to ensure that the sensors are getting precise temperature readings and are not affected by humidity or debris, even in a sealed and durable housing. You may even need to replace your sensors every couple of years to ensure they keep working.
Investing in the right environmental controller and having a professional install it can ensure that your investment pays off and produces optimal environmental conditions for your plants, so you can have peace of mind.
